JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Cleveland State softball team played a pair of close games to open the Jacksonville Invitational on Saturday, but came up just short in both contests.

CSU fell to St. Bonaventure, 9-7, in this morning's first game and fell to host Jacksonville, 3-2, in game two.

The Bonnies scored six runs in the first inning to jump out to a big lead, but the Vikings came right back in the second inning with three runs to slice the deficit in half. Mackenzie Joecken had an RBI double that scored Mel Woodard and Alicia Major followed with a two-run homer.

After SBU added two more runs in the third to extend the lead to 8-3, the Vikings came back with a run on Bailee Gray's RBI bunt single in the fourth.

CSU added three more runs in the fifth to pull within one run at 8-7. Gray had an RBI single, while Sofia Johantgen added a sacrifice fly. However, the Bonnies came back with a tally in the bottom half of the fifth to push the lead to 9-7 and held on for the win.

CSU out-hit St. Bonaventure, 12-11, as Major finished 3-for-3 with two RBI. Gray and Joecken had two hits apiece, while Woodard and Dyonne Vargas both scored two runs.

Kristin Catalano was strong in relieft in the circle, working the final three innings and giving up one run on three hits with a strikeout.

In today's second game, CSU used RBI singles from Riley Ries and Joecken in the first to assume an early 2-0 lead.

Jacksonville cut the lead in half with a run in the third and it stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh when Jacksonville used back-to-back two-out RBI doubles to earn a walk-off win.

Woodard had two of CSU's seven hits, while Macy Kaisk, Joecken, Ries, Gray and Melissa Jacobsen all had one hit each.

Joecken worked all 6 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with two strikeouts.

CSU concludes play in the tournament with two games tomorrow, playing St. Bonaventure at 9:30 am and Jacksonville at 2:30 pm.